1. Technical Field
The invention disclosed broadly relates to data processing systems and methods and more particularly relates to broadcasting large digital files to subscribers on demand in a subscriber network.
2. Background Art
There has been a strong trend in recent years toward the conversion of still pictures and full motion video into digital form. This trend has been driven to some extent by the need to provide images and full motion video on compact disk read only memory units to support the entertainment and home computer market. The increasing use of digitized video has been accompanied by the interest of various industry groups such as the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG), to develop standards for digital video compression, making it practical to handle full motion video over narrow band channels. The MPEG video compression/decompression algorithms provide a suitable compression for the information in digital video recordings, enabling their storage in compact form on digital storage media.
As digital video becomes more available, new methods of handling movies and their distribution must be implemented to adequately compete with existing distribution channels. Video storage has traditionally been provided in analog or digital form by video tape. This has led to an industry built around that technology, network television, cable TV, video rental stores and the like. Network TV and cable TV have used "a broadcast" medium where the consumer is locked into time schedules which are predetermined by the service packager. Video rental stores have provided additional convenience to the consumer by providing movies that the consumer wishes to see at the time the consumer wishes to see them, or video on demand. What is needed is a broadcast medium where the consumer is not locked into a time schedule which is predetermined by the service packager.